Sealing mechanism for flexible doors

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to a sealing mechanism for flexible doors for large building openings such as aircraft hangars, gymnasiums, etc. On each vertical edge of the door is a pivotally mounted arm, having a flexible flap connected thereto, which is automatically pivoted into sealing engagement with a side of the flexible door when the door is moved to a closed position. Means are also provided for pivotally disengaging the arm and flap from the flexible sheet upon opening the door and for raising it up above the level of the door.

United States Patent [151 3,704,742

Kuss 1 Dec. 5, 1972 I5 1 SEALING MECHANISM FOR 626,475 6/1899 Andrews ..l/243 FLEXIBLE DOORS 3,398,779 8/1968 Kuss ...160/243 72 1 t:RlhL.K F'dl,' 1 nve n or a p m ay Ohm Primary Examiner-Reinaldo P. Machado Asslgneel Kuss & -9 y Assistant Examiner-Philip C. Kannan Ohlo Attorney-Owen & Owen [22] Filed: Feb. 25, 1971 [57] ABSTRACT [21] Appl. No.: 118,878

This invention relates to a sealing mechanism for flexible doors for large building openings such as aircraft hangars, gymnasiums, etc. On each vertical edge of the door is a pivotally mounted arm, having a flexible [5 8] held of Search 26 flap connected thereto, which is automatically pivoted v l l into sealing engagement with a side of the flexible [56] R fer n d door when the door is moved to a closed position. e e as l e Means are also provided for pivotally disengaging the UNITED STATES PATENTS arm and flap from the flexible sheet upon opening the door and for raising it up above the level of the door. 166,218 8/1875 Connor 2,084,847 6/1937 Kaletay ..l60/269 x 5 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures msmcnuic 1 12 3.704.742

SHEET 2 UF 2 I NVE NTOR:

4 BY RALpHLKUss.

ATTys.

SEALING MECHANISM FOR FLEXIBLE DOORS SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention is a sealing mechanism for a flexible door having a vertically hung flexible sheet secured at its bottom edge to a generally horizontal roller. Opening and closing of the flexible sheet is accomplished by rolling and unrolling the sheet about the roller as the roller travels up and down. It may also be used with a door having a flexible sheet wound on an overhead roller with a fixed axis which raises or lowers the door by winding or unwinding the sheet from the overhead roller.

The sealing mechanism comprises a pivotally mounted arm having a flexible flap secured thereto. A cable extending through a series of pulleys connects a counterweight to the arm and a second cable connects the arm to the bottom roller. The counterweight tends to pivot the arm upwardly to an open position; the roller tends to pivot the arm downwardly to a closed position. When the roller is moved downwardly to unroll the sheet, the arm connected to the roller by the cable is simultaneously pivoted into vertical sealing engagement, through the flexible flap, with the vertically hung sheet. When the roller is moved upwardly, the counterweight pivots the arm upwardly out of engagement with the flexible sheet. Means are provided adjacent the roller to engage the arm when in its closed position and to initiate the upward pivoting of the arm upon commencement of upward movement of th roller.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Dueto recent developments in flexible fabrics, such as nylon, dacron, etc., it has become possible to fabricate flexible doors for very large openings such as aircraft hangar doors. These doors basically include a flexible curtain secured at its top to an overhead member and a roller secured generally at the bottom of the curtain with a means for raising and lowering the door by winding or unwinding it upon the roller. Such a door is disclosed in'my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 3,398,779. Such doors if properly constructed have the requisite strength to withstandwind forces, are resistant to damage, and yet require relatively little storage space when in an upper rolled position. Although such a flexible door in its closed position will withstand high wind pressures, the lack of rigid support in the door sides causes substantial air leakage, undesirable flapping and permits the possibility of unwanted entry. This leakage is caused by the tendency of the flexible door to billow under wind pressures causing a disengagement of the flexible membrane from the vertical door jambs.

Prior attempts at providing a suitable sealing means for flexible door sides have been largely unsuccessful because of the difficulty encountered in moving the sealing device into and out of engagement with the door sides to facilitate easy opening and closing. It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a sealing mechanism for the sides of flexible doors which will automatically engage and disengage from a sealing position as the door is closed and opened.

It is another object of this invention to provide a sealing mechanism for the sides of a flexible door member which requires little storage space and does not cause any obstruction in a door opening when the door is in its open position.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of a preferred embodiment of a sealing mechanism of this invention, shown from the inside of a building such as an aircraft hangar and showing the door in a closed position and indicating in broken lines the door in open position;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1 of the sealing mechanism for a-flexible door, showing the door in a fully opened position;

FIG. 2a is a schematic view in perspective showing some of the details of the end of the sealing arm and the roller anchor bracket;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view in elevation of the preferred embodiment of the sealing mechanism of the invention;

FIG. 4 is an elevational view of the device shown in FIG. 3, taken from line 4-4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view, as seen along line 5-5 of FIG. 4, illustrating the swing path of the sealing mechanism of the inventionyand FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view illustrating the swing path of the sealing mechanism in an alternate embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As previously stated, the flexible door side seal can be used with flexible doors of the type with a fixed roller at the top. It is described, however, in this preferred embodiment, as installed in a door of the traveling roller type described in my aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,398,779. 5

Referring to FIG. I, a flexible door 10 having a generally horizontal roller 11 attached thereto is shown with the sealing mechanism of the invention, generally indicated at 12, in a vertical sealing position against the side of the door 10. The sealing mechanism 12 comprises a carrier arm 13 pivotally attached to a pivot pin 14 which is fastened to an upper wall 15 above one of the side walls 16 of a door opening. As best seen in FIG. 3, the axis of the pivot pin 14 is in a vertical plane but is depressed below the horizontal by a small angle A, preferably 10. The casting carrying the bearing 160 which is joumalled on the pivot pin 14 is bored so that the bearing axis is at minus A from the axis of the carrier arm 13. This is done to cause the pivot arm to generate the surface of a cone as it swings about the axis of the pin 14. With the pin axis 14 so depressed from the horizontal, the path of the pivot arm 13 will approach the plane of the door 10 in an arcuate manner and will be tangential thereto only at its lowermost vertical position. This is best seen in FIGS. 4 and 5 and the reasons therefore will be later explained.

A longitudinally extending flexible flap 17 of a resilient material such as rubber is mounted on the inner surface of the carrier arm 13 with respect to the flexible door 10. The flexible flap 17 is thus carried into engagement with the flexible door 10 when the carrier arm 13 is pivoted into its vertical, closed position and is deformed against the door 10 and the opposing side wall 16 to effect an air tight seal.

As best seen in FlG. 2a, an angled strike plate 18 carried by the roller 11 engages an anchor pin 19 on the end of the carrier arm 13 when the arm 13 approaches its vertical position. The plate 18 includes 18 includes a stop plate 20 which extends normal to the axis of the roller 11. When the door is closed, the anchor pin 19 is cradled inside the strike plate 18 and is held there against outward movement. As the horizontal roller 11 is moved in an upward direction, an inclined cam or kick plate 21 welded to the pin 19 imparts a pivoting motion to the carrier arm 13 when it is struck by the stop plate 20 and moved towards the upward pivotal direction.

Referring again to FIG. 1, a counterweight 22 is connected by a cable 23 which extends through a series of pulleys to a lever arm 24 attached to the carrier arm 13. An extension 23a of the cable 23 connects the lever arm 24 to a bracket 25 on the strike plate 19 carried by a horizontal roller 11. The horizontal roller 11 will pivot the carrier arm 13 into a vertical closed position when the roller 11 is moved downwardly along a track 26 by a roller driving motor generally indicated at 27. Electric power from a fixed power source P is supplied to the motor 27 by a flexible power line L. The counterweight 22 will pivot the carrier arm 13 upwardly toward a horizontal, open position above the flexible door 10 when the roller 11 is correspondingly moved upwardly along its track 26.

in operation, actuation of the driving means 27 for the roller 11, when the flexible door 10 is in a closed position, will cause the roller 1 1 to wind itself about the flexible fabric 10 in an upward direction. Upward movement of the roller 11 causes the stop plate 20 to cam the kick plate 21 and thus the arm 13 in the direction of its pivotal movement. As the roller 11 continues its upward movement, the counterweight 22, attached to the lever arm 24 by the cable 23 drops, thus causing the carrier arm 13 to pivot upwardly and out of engagement with the flexible door 10. As the roller 11 continues to rise, it permits the upward swing of the' carrier arm 13 to continue until it reaches its uppermost, open position as shown in H6. 1. When the roller reaches the top of its travel, the carrier arm 13 will correspondingly reach its uppermost point of travel in a generally horizontal position above the door opening as best seen in FlG. l. A stop block 28 may be positioned above the door opening to arrest the rapid motion of the carrier arm 13.

In order to close the door, the driving means 27 is actuated to move the roller 11 downwardly, causing the roller 11 to unwind itself from the flexible door 10. The downward motion of the roller 11, also attached to the lever arm 24 by the cable extension 23a, causes a corresponding downward pivoting of the carrier arm 13. When the roller 11 reaches its lowermost closed position, the anchor pin 19 on the carrier arm 13 strikes the angled strike plate 18 which guides the arm 13 into its vertical sealing position against the side of the flexible closure 10.

As previously explained, the axis of the pivot pin 14 and bearing 16a are offset by the angle A so that the path of the carrier arm 13 and its attached flexible flap 17 generates a portion of the surface of a cone whose axis coincides with the axis of the pivot pin 14 with the generated cone tangential to the plane of the door 10 at a vertical line below the pivot pin 14. This means that the arm 13 and flap 17, as they move toward their lower, vertical position, gradually approach the door along an arcuate path as illustrated in FIG. 5. The flap 17 will engage the fabric of the door 10 prior to reaching its verticalposition and will gradually wipe the fabric with increasing pressure until the fully closed position is reached at which the flap 17 firmly presses the fabric against the vertical side jamb 16 and the carrier arm 13 is secured against the carrier retention means 1 9 on the roller. On the other hand, when the door is opened, the flap 17 gradually pulls away from the door 10 which effects a progressive breaking away of the seal therebetween so that any ice bond formed in cold weather will be broken.

it is also possible to operate the mechanism of this invention wherein the pivot pin axis is offset from a vertical plane by a small angle B but remains horizontal and the bearing axis on the carrier arm is at right angles to the arm. Such an arrangement is schematically shown in FIG. 6 which indicate that the swing path of the carrier arm 13 is in a single plane which intersects the plane of the door 10 at the line of sealing contact. This arrangement, while operative, has not been found as satisfactory as that of the preferred embodiment in which the arcuate path of the arm 13 gradually approaches the door 10 as described. I

The vertical height of the door 10 and the size of the interior space bear upon the size of the angle A which determines how far the end of the carrier arm will extend into the hangar or garage space behind the door. Experience has shown that the angle A should be between 5l0 to keep the carrier arm out of the interior space and yet assure that it will not interfere with the door during its downward path particularly if the door is billowing inwardly. if space does not present a problem, larger angles A can, of course, be used.

Only one side sealing mechanism has been described. A complete installation will of course include a sealing mechanism of the .type described adjacent each edge of the door, and both sides of course operate simultaneously. Aspreviously stated, the principle of this invention can be used with other types of rolling flexible doors such as those which have an overhead roller on a fixed axis over the space to be closed or any other type door which raises and lowers a flexible membrane.

A number of operational features and advantages will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the above description of a preferred embodiment. Firstly, the sealing mechanism is automatically actuated by movement of the door. As such, it is not possible to open the door and jam or injure the mechanism as was possible with prior art side closure devices which were manually separately operable. Secondly, the device in closed, vertical position, is positively engaged with the flexible sheet 10 against the side wall 16 and is held there at each end by the pivot pin 14 and abutment plate 20. Thirdly, the device, because of its counterweight operation, takes little additional power to operate. When the counterweight is being raised, the door roller 11 is being lowered. Lastly, the device, in fully open or closed position, is fully out of the way and will not reduce effective hangar or interior space, that is, when fully open, the entire sealing mechanism and power lines, etc. are above the roller 11 and door upper wall 15.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent to those skilled in the art and various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the claims herein.

lclaim:

l. A sealing mechanism fora flexible door having a vertically hung flexible sheet with a driven, generally horizontal roller secured thereto whereby rotation of said roller in a first direction will cause said roller to move upwardly as it winds itself within said sheet and whereby rotation in a second direction will cause said roller to move downwardly as it unwinds itself from said sheet, said sealing mechanism comprising:

a carrier arm having a flexible sealing means secured thereto;

pivot means for rotating said carrier arm and said sealing means from an open position to a closed position, said pivot means being located at one end of said arm and mounted relative to said flexible sheet whereby said carrier arm with said sealing means is maintained out of engagement with said flexible sheet when said carrier arm is pivoted to its said open position and is placed into engagement with one vertical edge of said flexible sheet when pivoted into its said closed position; and

a counterweight attached through a cable extending,

first to said carrier arm and then to said driven roller whereby vertical motion of said driven roller will cause a corresponding pivoting of said carrier arm.

2. A sealing mechanism for a flexible closure member according to claim 1 which further includes means secured relative to said driven roller for striking said carrier arm to impart an upward, pivotal motion to said carrier arm when said roller is driven upwardly.

3. A sealing mechanism for a flexible door driven vertically from an upper open to a lower closed position, said sealing mechanism including a carrier arm having one end pivotally attached above said door and moveable from a remote horizontal position above said door to an engaged vertical position in contact with one vertical edge of said door, said carrier arm, when in engaged vertical position, extending alongside and engaging substantially the entire vertical length of said one edge of said flexible door to prevent movement thereof normal to the plane of said door toward said carrier arm, and means operably connecting said carrier arm and said door for causing said carrier arm to move from its said remote horizontal position to its said engaged vertical position when said door is driven from its said upper open position to its said lower, closed position.

4. The sealing mechanism for a flexible door as defined in claim 3 wherein the plane of pivotal movement of said carrier arm intersectssaid flexible door only at said one vertical edge of said door.

5. A sealing mechanism for a flexible door, driven vertically from an upper open to a lower closed position, said sealing mechanism including a carrier arm having one end pivotally attached above said door and movable from a remote horizontally position above said door to an engaged vertical position in contact with one vertical edge of said door, said carrier arm, when in said engaged vertical position, extending alongside and engaging substantially the entire vertical length of said one edge of said flexible door to prevent movement thereof normal to the plane of said door toward said carrier arm, said movement of said carrier arm describing a path of rotation which is a portion of the surface of a cone tangential to the plane of said door along a vertical line extending along the vertical edge of said door, and a counterweight connected by a cable, first to said carrier arm and then to means carried by said door for closing said carrier arm to move from its said remote horizontal position to its said engaged vertical position when said door is driven from its said upper open position to its said lower, closed position. 

1. A sealing mechanism for a flexible door having a vertically hung flexible sheet with a driven, generally horizontal roller secured thereto whereby rotation of said roller in a first direction will cause said roller to move upwardly as it winds itself within said sheet and whereby rotation in a second direction will cause said roller to move downwardly as it unwinds itself from said sheet, said sealing mechanism comprising: a carrier arm having a flexible sealing means secured thereto; pivot means for rotating said carrier arm and said sealing means from an open position to a closed position, said pivot means being located at one end of said arm and mounted relative to said flexible sheet whereby said carrier arm with said sealing means is maintained out of engagement with said flexible sheet when said carrier arm is pivoted to its said open position and is placed into engagement with one vertical edge of said flexible sheet when pivoted into its said closed position; and a counterweight attached through a cable extending, first to said carrier arm and then to said driven roller whereby vertical motion of said driven roller will cause a corresponding pivoting of said carrier arm.
 2. A sealing mechanism for a flexible closure member according to claim 1 which further includes means secured relative to Said driven roller for striking said carrier arm to impart an upward, pivotal motion to said carrier arm when said roller is driven upwardly.
 3. A sealing mechanism for a flexible door driven vertically from an upper open to a lower closed position, said sealing mechanism including a carrier arm having one end pivotally attached above said door and moveable from a remote horizontal position above said door to an engaged vertical position in contact with one vertical edge of said door, said carrier arm, when in engaged vertical position, extending alongside and engaging substantially the entire vertical length of said one edge of said flexible door to prevent movement thereof normal to the plane of said door toward said carrier arm, and means operably connecting said carrier arm and said door for causing said carrier arm to move from its said remote horizontal position to its said engaged vertical position when said door is driven from its said upper open position to its said lower, closed position.
 4. The sealing mechanism for a flexible door as defined in claim 3 wherein the plane of pivotal movement of said carrier arm intersects said flexible door only at said one vertical edge of said door.
 5. A sealing mechanism for a flexible door, driven vertically from an upper open to a lower closed position, said sealing mechanism including a carrier arm having one end pivotally attached above said door and movable from a remote horizontally position above said door to an engaged vertical position in contact with one vertical edge of said door, said carrier arm, when in said engaged vertical position, extending alongside and engaging substantially the entire vertical length of said one edge of said flexible door to prevent movement thereof normal to the plane of said door toward said carrier arm, said movement of said carrier arm describing a path of rotation which is a portion of the surface of a cone tangential to the plane of said door along a vertical line extending along the vertical edge of said door, and a counterweight connected by a cable, first to said carrier arm and then to means carried by said door for closing said carrier arm to move from its said remote horizontal position to its said engaged vertical position when said door is driven from its said upper open position to its said lower, closed position. 